Giant panda in Chengdu in South Western China. Photo by: Shubhobroto Ghosh. By: Shubhobroto Ghosh Please note : The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and not representative of the viewpoints of any organization. “We have to remember that what we observe is not nature herself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning” – Werner Heisenberg, Nobel Prize winner in Physics (1932) in Physics...

Note: as a news organization mongabay.com does not endorse the action below, but believes its readers may be interested in taking action or discussing the issue in comments. Horton Plains slender loris. Photo courtesy of EDGE. Researchers estimate that only 80 Horton Plains slender loris (Loris tardigradus nycticeboides) survive in the world. After believed to be extinct ZSL EDGE rediscovered the subspecies in a dwindling Sri Lanka...

Cambodia’s Cardamom Mountains were recently spared a titanium mine, however now the region faces a new peril: bananas. The Australian firm Indochina Gateway Capital Limited has proposed a banana plantation in the Southern Cardamom Mountains. The plantation would likely destroy an elephant corridor for one of Cambodia’s last wild elephant populations. In addition, pesticides used in the plantation could pollute local...

Saving Asia’s Vultures from Extinction from The RSPB on Vimeo. Vultures may not get a lot of love, or respect for that matter, from the public, but they play a vital role in cleaning up and recycling nature’s waste, which also helps prevent diseases from spreading. Vultures were once abundant throughout Asia, but that was until veterinary drug diclofenac became common. Used on cattle and livestock, researchers discovered...

It turns out that sharks are worth more alive than dead. According to a new study, a single shark is worth $1.9 million over its lifetime as a tourist attraction in the island nation of Palau. Sold for consumption the shark is worth around $108. In this case a shark is worth a stunning 17,000 times more alive than dead. Sharks worldwide are being decimated, largely for the Asian delicacy shark fin soup. Some populations have fallen by...

A pair of saiga calves. Photo by: Igor Shpilenok. Few species have seen a worse decline in the past 15 years than the Asian antelope, the saiga. Once known for making up one of the world’s largest migrations, the saiga population has dropped from 1.25 million in the 1990s to 50,000 animals today, plunging over 90% and landing itself on the Critically Endangered species list. The Saiga Conservation Alliance (SCA), which is...

Baby Sumatran elephant on the run. Photos of Sumatran elephants at Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park on the island of Sumatra. These Sumatran elephants are patrol elephants; they’ve been recently domesticated and are used to reduce human-wildlife conflict. All photos by Rhett A. Butler. Meeting of the minds. Sumatran elephant with mahout. Trunk tricks. Traveling. Big male. Fountain. Modern world. To see more photos of Sumatran...

Three Asian elephants from the Zoological Society of London’s Whipsnade Zoo take a spring stroll under blossoming Japanese miniature cherry trees. Photo by: Hannah Thompson. Mongabay.com recently conducted an interview on how wild Asian elephants, and their African counterparts, are vital to ‘gardening’ the continent’s tropical forests. To read more: Elephants: the gardeners of Asia’s and Africa’s...

Like the American bison or the passenger pigeon the radiated tortoise (Astrochelys radiata) has gone from super-abundant to nearly extinct. The species could be gone by 2030 warn researchers. Photo by Robert Walker. Once one of the world’s most abundant tortoises, numbering in the millions, Madagascar’s radiated tortoise is on the very brink of extinction. Killed for their meat by one of the world’s most impoverished...

No, this is not photoshopped: this month-old Egyptian tortoise (Testudo kleinmanni) is actually dwarfed by a grape. A new resident of the Zoological Society of London’s (ZSL) Whipsnade Zoo, Bedfordshire, the tortoise is the offspring of a group of tortoises seized by customs last year as a sting on the illegal pet trade. The tiny tortoise pictured weighs 0.2 ounces (6 grams), but within a decade will weigh nearly hundred times...

Note: mongabay.com does not endorse the action below, but believes its readers may be interested in taking action or discussing the issue in comments. African elephant (Acinonyx jubatus) infant in Kenya. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. The organization SOS Elephants of Chad has released a petition urging the Chinese government to tackle the illegal ivory and rhino horn trade as a new article in the Global Post reports: “The growing...

Video is from an ongoing study by Panthera and the Snow Leopard Trust. It is the first comprehensive long-term study on snow leopards. This video was taken in August 2010 at the Tost Mountain study area in South Gobi, Mongolia where Panthera and the Snow Leopard Trust are collaborating. This film clip is actually 61 images taken about a half second apart by one of our remote automated cameras. We believe it is a mother and her nearly...

Video documents the oil spill on Nightingale Island in the remote Southern Atlantic ocean, which has taken a particular toll on Endangered northern rockhopper penguins Over a week ago conservation workers have hundreds of oiled northern rockhopper penguins (Eudyptes moseleyi) after a cargo vessel wrecked on Nightingale Island, a part of the remote UK’s Tristan da Cunha archipelago. According to a press release by BirdLife...

Native to India, the purple frog (Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis) is listed as Endangered by the IUCN Red List. The species is also a focal amphibian for the innovative ZSL EDGE program, which selects the species it works with based on their evolutionary uniqueness and threat level. According to the EDGE website: “The purple frog is the sole representative of an ancient lineage of frogs that has been evolving independently for...

The world’s bamboo lemurs are also known by the more evocative name, the gentle lemurs. Currently these lemurs are separated into five species, all of which are threatened with extinction. These photos are of the Eastern Lesser Bamboo Lemur which is classified as Vulnerable by the IUCN Red List. Photos by Rhett A. Butler. More photos of bamboo...

Note: mongabay.com does not endorse the action below, but believes its readers may be interested in taking action or discussing the issue in comments. Male gorilla in Gabon. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is currently considering allowing oil companies SOCO and Dominion into Virunga National Park for drilling. Home to a quarter of the world’s mountain gorillas, as well as...

Conservation problem or opportunity? Australia tries to decide what to do with its population of invasive wild cattle, known as banteng. The problem is that this invasive species has almost gone extinct in its native Southeast Asia. Does Australia protect a globally endangered species even if it’s not their own? Credit:...